


Gone

by teddysheeranfics



Category: Ed Sheeran (Musician)
Genre: Cuddling, F/M, Fluff, Not horror but kind of scary, but I want to move stuff over from tumblr so, fear of being alone, horror figures, this is old
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-25
Updated: 2018-01-25
Packaged: 2019-03-09 03:41:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13472964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teddysheeranfics/pseuds/teddysheeranfics
Summary: Ed has an unsettling nightmare that seems all-too real.





	Gone

 

The chair was uncomfortable no matter how many times Ed switched between sitting with his left leg tucked beneath him or sitting cross legged on the seat.  He sighed and rolled his head to stretch the stiff muscles in his neck, tilting it left and right to try and get it to crack.

When he’s in the studio he isn’t easily distracted, not like he is at home, which is why he chooses to spend full days there and then some when he’s feeling creative.  He’d been there since early that morning and every so often he’d check his watch for the time, making sure he’d stick to his schedule and be out of there before eight, since he made plans to have dinner with you at his house.

From the kink in his back and the yawn he couldn’t help but let out, he checked his watch again, double taking when he saw that it was already ten minutes past eight o’clock and he was nowhere near being done at the studio.  Without another thought he quickly pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed your number.

It rang unanswered and Ed sighed against the phone when it went to voicemail.

“Baby, I’m so sorry,” he started, “I lost track of the time, but I promise I’m leaving here in fifteen minutes, no later, please wait for me.”

With a final ‘I love you’ he hung up and got straight back to work editing the last bit of the song he’d been working on.  He kept getting stuck on the last verse of the song and when he started to run his hand through his hair and rub his eyes under his glasses, he knew he had to leave it and come back to it another time.

Ed stood up and stretched his back, curling his arms up beside his head with another yawn.  Though his stomach had been grumbling for the past hour or so, he ignored it to try and finish the song and stayed put in the dim room, handwriting lyrics he’d been trying to complete for the past week.

Sometimes songs would come so easy to him that he’d get overly frustrated when he got stuck on one or two of them.  When he would start feeling angry or frustrated he was well aware that he had to stop, and so he did, closing up his leather bound notebook and gathering it in his left hand beside his hip.

“’Night guys,” he called once he left the room, rubbing under his nose before he nudged his glasses up a little further.

There wasn’t an answer but instead of going to say goodnight to anyone else left behind, he walked straight through and to the front where the reception desk was.

“’See you tomorrow-” he trailed, but he didn’t complete his sentence when the desk came into view and the receptionist, Jenna, was gone.  

Ed looked around and stood completely still with his eyebrows angled in confusion.  He’d listened for a bit but heard nothing but quiet, which even he knew was exceptionally odd for a recording studio, even at eight at night.

“’Ello?” he called out, a little louder, listening after the sound of his voice rang out.

The computer’s screen at the desk was still on, and Ed leaned over the counter, seeing the spreadsheet of upcoming artist schedules opened, but he didn’t bother to read any of it.  Normally if he was the last artist there, someone always stayed behind to lock up at night, so he wasn’t sure exactly what to do in the situation.

After a few more minutes of silence he sighed and headed back down the corridor, knocking and calling out at each closed door and peering in the open ones.  The studio was entirely vacant, and Ed couldn’t understand how or why he was the last one there.

Either way he didn’t want to keep you waiting any longer so he called the studio from his own phone and left a message, explaining the situation before he shut the lights and pulled the main door closed. He felt uneasy leaving it unlocked, but he didn’t have a key or another way to lock up, so he shrugged it off and pulled his car key from his back pocket.

He climbed in the car and before starting it up he just stared at the main entrance and chewed the inside of his cheek, unsure about pulling away and leaving it unlocked.  Mainly he was nervous about being responsible if anyone was to steal any of the extremely expensive equipment, or even if anyone vandalized anything.  But there wasn’t much more he could do, so he shrugged it off and started up the car.

White noise blared through the car speakers and Ed winced with a hiss through his teeth, jutting forward to change the station. Each one he scanned through was the same static and at first he felt confused, and then annoyed, deciding a wire must’ve come loose somewhere.  He switched it off and just drove in silence.

On the way down the road he hit every green light, which was rare, and as he kept going along he noticed something strange.  The streets were clear except for him.  Cars were parked silently off to the sides but none were driving alongside him, and for a minute it looked as if the city were asleep, which even Ed knew wasn’t ever the case.  

“That’s fuckin’ weird, mate,” he whispered to himself, leaning forward to look more ahead, and seeing not a single person walking down the street.

He looked to the clock and then back out the window, and checked his phone for the time, just to make sure it wasn’t later than he thought.  Again he brushed off the oddity and carried on driving, singing out loud to himself the song he’d been working on, tapping his thumbs against the wheel and mumbling once he got to the part he hadn’t written yet.

Finally he pulled down his street and felt relief when he spotted your car parked in his driveway.  A smile inched over his mouth and he quickly popped out of the car and set the alarm, still humming when he walked up to the door and unlocked it.

“I’m home, love,” he called, kicking off his shoes and not wasting any time heading for the kitchen.  He assumed you didn’t hear him when there was no response, so he just carried on humming and pulled open the fridge to grab a bottle of water.

“Babe?” he yelled out again, a bit louder and almost whining to be silly when he cracked open the bottle and brought it to his lips.

Ed swished the water around his mouth before he swallowed and called your name in a serious tone, but only silence responded back. His blonde eyebrows furrowed and he went down the hall, having to flick on the light since it was dark.

“You having a shower?” he called, still walking and even though he didn’t hear the water he checked the bathroom anyway, finding it dark and vacant.

The bedroom was quiet as well but still he poked his head in and checked there and the bathroom right off it, just in case.

Confused, Ed made his way back down the hall and checked the front room, calling your name again.  He didn’t understand where you could be if your car was parked out front, and just to be sure he wasn’t seeing things, he looked out the window to double check that it was yours and not someone else’s, as odd as that may have been.

When he saw that it was yours and that you clearly weren’t in the house, he pulled his phone from his pocket with his free hand and dialed your number.

He held the open water bottle and listened to the ring in the phone, a part of him concerned about where you were and the other part a little annoyed if you’d gone off somewhere without mentioning it.

After two rings he thought he heard something down the hall and pulled the phone away from his ear for a second.

“Honey?” he called out, the distant ring in the phone singing in his right ear.

The sound of your phone ringing cut the silence in the house and Ed stilled, his heart skipping a beat in his chest when he heard it echoing from down the hall.   A flush of worry and fear swirled in his chest and though he was a little nervous, he stepped forward and followed the ringing.

“Babe?” he called again, inching closer down the hall.

The ringing grew closer but switched to voicemail before he could find the source, but before he carried on walking he hung up and dialed again, listening.  His mismatched socks thudded the hardwood floor when he heard it again and continued to follow the sound.  Slowly he pushed open his bedroom door with the water bottle still in his fist.

Cold water splattered over the bottom legs of his jeans and soaked his socks when it dropped from his hand and the plastic cracked against the wood floor.  

Your phone was there against the made-up bed, and he went over and grabbed it, seeing the front screen showing not only the two current missed calls, but the one from him earlier when he was at the studio, along with the unreceived voicemail.

He looked around the bedroom confused, feeling a flurry of fear embed itself in his chest.  Frantically, he left the room and shouted your name, checking every corner and crevice of the house, but there was no sign of you.  Ed started to worry and he ran his hand roughly through his orange hair, finally rushing outside to check inside your car.

Empty.

“If this is you fucking with me for being late it isn’t funny!” he yelled out into the dark air, heading to the back of the house.  

He used the flashlight on his phone to light the way and when he thoroughly checked every possible part of the outside, his shaking hands dialed Stuart’s number.

Inhaling an unsteady breath the phone rang until the voicemail clicked on and he left a shaky message asking if he knew where you were or had heard from you.  Ed knew it was strange to even bother asking Stuart, but he didn’t know what else to do.

Shoving his phone back into his pocket he ran to the front door and shouted your name, deciding again to check every room and closet and even the shower stalls.

Nearly an hour had passed and his stomach felt sick. Something was wrong.  You wouldn’t just leave him hanging like that.  You wouldn’t leave your phone if you’d decided to walk somewhere, and even if you had, it’d been well over two hours since he’d called you from the studio and you should’ve been back by then.

Ed scratched the back of his hair and without thinking he dialed the emergency number, 999.  He took in a breath to calm his nerves and after two rings there was a click.

“We’re sorry,” an automated female voice said, “the number you have dialed is out of service, please try-“

He hung up and redialed, making sure he’d pressed the three numbers correctly.  

His heart was pounding in his chest when it rang again and gave the same message.

“What the fuck,” he almost yelled into the phone, angrily ripping it away from his ear and ending the call.  

Another deep breath in and he dialed his mother, officially unsure of who else to reach out to.

No answer.

With his socks still soggy he shoved his shoes back on his feet and ran to his car.

On the startup white noise blared at full volume out of the speakers again and Ed flinched, quickly reaching forward to turn the radio down and off.

“Fucking hell,” he spat, the loud static piercing his eardrums.

The first place he drove was to your house, and though it was dark from the outside he still jogged up to the front door and unlocked it with the spare key you’d given him a while back.  He shouted your name loud and hurried through the dark house, flooding each room with light.  Looking through each room left him feeling vacant and scared, and after he finished looking around he felt tears pricking his eyes.

Unable to think of anything but the absolute worst he held his face in his hands and let the tears pool his eyes.  He roughly wiped them from his cheeks and ruffled his hair, hurrying back out the door and sealing it with a slam.  All of it could have been avoided had he stuck to his plan to meet with you at eight, and he felt a crushing amount of guilt ripping through his gut, knowing he’d never be able to forgive himself if something had happened to you.

Back in the car, he braced himself for the radio to spray white noise at him, but it didn’t that time and he sped off.

“Please,” he mumbled out loud, driving faster than he ever had, “Please let her be okay.”

The streets were still eerily vacant and quiet and a rush of new fear flooded Ed’s chest when he couldn’t spot a single soul.  There wasn’t anyone walking, nobody driving, no busses or trolleys or bikes.  It was incredibly strange and it scared him beyond explanation.

With a trembling hand he reached forward and decided to scan the radio stations again, fearing that there was some sort of evacuation while he was stuck in the studio.  With his eyes switching between the road ahead and the radio he pressed the button but found steady white noise on each channel.

Tears pricked the corners of his eyes again and he sniffed back the tingle in his nose when he was once again left in the dark.  

After ten minutes of driving he reached his parent’s house and the rubber tires burned the pavement with a loud screech when he sped into the driveway.  

“Please be okay,” he said under his breath, hurrying from the car and to the door.

There were lights on inside and he felt a slight twinge of relief until he pushed open the front door and heard silence.  Normally there was music playing or light conversation, or even the sound of his mother running the water in the kitchen or his father talking over all of the other noise.

“Mum,” he called, slamming the door closed and hurrying toward the kitchen.

No answer.

“Dad?”

Ed peered around the corner where the hall stretched to his father’s office and the bedrooms and still silence.  His heart thumped so hard in his chest he could feel it in his throat and in the tips of his fingers.

“Please,” he said again, voice cracking and on the verge of tears, “mum, please, where are you?”

He was shaking so hard he could hardly reach his phone but he somehow managed, his trembling thumb tapping his mother’s name and bringing the phone up to his ear.

Ed almost crashed to his knees when he could hear the distant sound of her cell phone ringing and buzzing from the kitchen.  He ran faster than his legs could move and spotted it vibrating against the counter.  He couldn’t help the tears that time and they fell freely when he grabbed his mother’s phone in his free hand.  He wanted to shout out loud and question what was going on and why he couldn’t find anyone, but he knew it would be no use.  Everyone was gone.

He took a heavy breath to calm himself again and dialed his dad, swallowing back the fear and the uncertainty.

His feet felt numb when he took a step forward and the ringing echoed from down the hall where he’d just been.  His throat burned and he held his stomach to try and keep the sick feeling inside.

Quickly he followed the sound from the hall and reached his dads office, the light on inside and his phone buzzing around against his wooden desk atop a piece of loose white paper.

Ed went forward and spotted the computer screen still on as if his dad had just gotten up and left it open and he ended the call, his glistening blue eyes meeting the computer screen where his father had been typing up an email.

‘Edward,’ it said, ‘your mother and I are so proud of you. Please come visit soon, we miss you. Your mother has something to run by you regarding’ and that was all it said, as if he’d gotten up and never returned to finish it.

Ed looked around the room, a devastating amount of fear pressing down on his lungs and he couldn’t seem to get any air into them.  He fell against the desk chair and clutched his chest with both hands, his phone dropping to the ground with a sharp crack. With a hard cough he put his head down and tried to focus on breathing just before he looked back up and screamed for his parents and for you so loudly there was almost no sound left in his throat.

Again and as a last resort he ripped his phone up off the floor and tried dialing ‘999’ again, shaking and feeling his chin tremble.

Same message.

For a while he sat there in his dad’s desk chair with his face in his hands and let the fear overtake him.  He couldn’t help but think he’d never see any of you again and though his brain couldn’t comprehend it, it was real.

His next and final stop was Stuart’s house and he prayed with every last bit of him that everyone would be there and it was all some kind of sick prank that he’d be pissed off about later.  Stuart’s house was a fifteen minute drive away but he drove at an alarming speed, too afraid to take any chances and waste another minute.

The lights were on in the house and Ed jumped out of the car so fast he didn’t even take the key out of the ignition or close the door. He ran to the front door and pounded his fist against the wood, his throat tightening when he turned the knob and found it unlocked.

“Stu,” he called out, seeing the light from the TV on in the front room to his left.  He rushed in and looked and the air he felt in his lungs caught in his chest when he saw white static snow on the screen and the same sound he’d heard on the radio coming from the speakers.

The house was vacant.  There was no one.  No Stuart, no dad, no mom, no you.  Ed repeated no to himself over and over again, clutching the sides of his head and before he could stop himself he tugged at his orange hair hard enough to feel the sting in his scalp.

He breathed heavy and brought his arm out to stare down at his colorful flesh, touching his skin and pinching and slapping at the tattoos until he couldn’t ignore the sharp pains.

“Is this real?” he questioned himself, whispering through a shaky breath in his throat.

He shook his head with a pout and rubbed his hands over his face again, feeling his eyes dart around under his closed lids.  With every thump of his heart behind his ribs he called out a final time for Stuart and even his girlfriend and the cats.

Nothing.

The last thing he could think to do was go back to his house and pray that you would somehow show up.  He was completely lost and didn’t know what else to do.  

While he drove he hardly blinked even though tears were pouring from his eyes and down his cheeks, and though he could hardly see the road ahead he drove faster than he normally would, desperate to go home and find someone, anyone.

He turned onto his street and he stared ahead, sniffling back the tears to get a clearer view of something in the road.

Ed wiped his eyes and adjusted his glasses, leaning forward and squinting before he slowed down and studied the four dark figures standing still in the road.

They were blocking the way to his house and he didn’t want to get any closer in case it were deer or some other animal and risk hitting it.  He beeped his horn but the shadowy figures stayed put.

He inched a bit closer and focused on adjusting his eyes in the dark, only the headlights on his car shining toward the lower half of the figures.

Slowly he inched forward and his foot slammed the brake when his eyes met what they didn’t want to believe was there in front of him.  Up his blue eyes went and his heart pounded harder and harder the more he started to understand what it was.

In front of his car and glowing in the headlights were his parents, Stuart and you.  He made out the clothing but all four of you were standing with your backs to Ed and his car. Ed blinked twice and rubbed his eyes under his glasses, reaching for the automatic button on his door to unlock them.

Slowly he climbed out of the car, keeping his eyes fixed on you all stood in the road.  All the way to the left was his dad and next to him on his right side was his mother, and finally Stuart with you to the right of him.  None of you were speaking or moving and your hands were all snapped at your sides, heads straight and facing away from Ed.

“Mum,” Ed called with a shaky breath, staying put beside his car.

When she didn’t move or respond he swallowed and called for his dad and then Stuart.

Tears pricked his eyes again and he felt the burn tightening in his throat when the night air was completely silent.  With a twitch of his muscles in his right hand he slowly called out your name and waited.

Ed took a slow step back when all four of you began to turn around in synch with each other.  Before they could fully turn Ed took another step closer toward his car door, his heart thumping hard behind his ribs.  He noticed his hands shaking and legs trembling, and when all four of you turned completely around, he was horrified when his blue eyes darted up and saw your faces made up of void black holes.  

Ed stumbled back and fell into his car in complete shock and fear, slamming the door and locking them with shaking hands.  The second the figures turned and stared and stood completely still, the same white noise switched back on the radio so loud he slammed his hands against his ears and cried out.  It hurt his eardrums and he squeezed his eyes shut, too afraid to open them.

Through the blaring static he heard a voice but the white noise was overpowering.  He tried to focus on the voice and peeled open one eye, still seeing the figures standing still in the road, their faces nothing but gaping darkness.

“Ed,” the voice in the white noise called and he shook his head, too afraid to listen.

“Ed.”

It was rushed and he didn’t want to hear it, but it was getting more audible then, playing behind the white noise and trying so hard to be the main source of sound rushing his ears.

“Please,” Ed mumbled, “please stop it.”

He pressed his hands so hard into his ears his palms were coated with sweat and again the voice came, but louder.

“Ed, wake up.”

The white noise still played in his ears and he forced open his eyes.  When his vision cleared up he snapped back to reality and saw a white ceiling above his head when he came to.  Though he was awake he didn’t have any feeling in his arms and felt paralyzed lying there against the pillow, his breath still hard and heart pounding.

With a harsh breath in Ed fully came to but you still called his name, your hands clutching the sides of his face while you kneeled on the bed beside him.  The rough orange hair pricked your palms while you held his cheeks gently but firm to give him any sort of comfort and contact.  He’d been stirring for the past half hour and wouldn’t wake up, no matter how hard you shook him or called his name.

“Baby it’s okay, you’re okay,” you said to calm him, reaching up to brush the damp copper hair from his forehead.

Ed’s blues eyes darted around the room and he finally caught your face in his vision, reaching his own hand up to clutch whatever part of you he could.

“Are you real?” he asked, his voice raspy and low.

You nodded quickly.

“Yes, you’re okay.  It was just a bad dream baby.”

His breathing had scared you more than anything. It was labored and sharp while he slept and it ended up being the thing that woke you.  His hands had twitched and his head lolled from left and right against the pillow, but when his breathing turned shallow it made you nervous. It almost sounded as if he were having an asthma attack and struggling to get air into his lungs.

Finally the paralysis faded when he felt your skin under his fingers and your heart nearly broke in your chest when he screwed up his face and his vibrant blue eyes flooded with tears.

“Can you just hold me, please?” he mumbled through tears, still feeling weak from the horrible nightmare, “Please just hold me.”

You didn’t hesitate and pulled him up with all your strength by his arms, tucking his warm body to yours.  His bare skin was slick with sweat when you embraced him.

The pounding of his heart thudded against your chest and you brought your hand up to cradle the back of his damp hair.

“It’s okay,” you said, “You’re okay.”

“You were gone,” he finally spoke, forcing the words out of his throat and finally getting his strength back, he brought his hands up and clutched your back, “everyone was gone.”

When you heard his voice crack a flush of sadness washed through you and he just very quietly said, “I was so scared.”

With a warm gentle rub you told him again he was alright and he pulled back, bringing his hands up to wipe his puffy eyes.

“You’re safe, baby,” you said softly, running your thumb under his eye and over the broken birthmark off to the side.  

Ed nodded his head, his cheeks flushed beneath his facial hair.

“I’ve never felt like that,” he admitted, pressing his hand to his chest to feel the fast beating of his heart.

You pulled his hand away to replace it with yours, feeling the steady thump under his soft warm skin.

“You’re still shaking,” you said, feeling his chest tremble as if he were cold, “here baby lie down.”

You helped him lie back against the pillows and you snuggled up close to him, wiping the rest of the stray tears from his freckled cheeks.

“I don’t want to fall back to sleep and go through that again,” he blurted, still with a hint of fear in his voice, “it was so real.”

With a small smirk you ran your fingers down the side of his face and over his ear until he shivered and sighed, letting you trail your hand down until it traced smooth lines over his tattoos.

“Just try and think about something else.”

He rested quiet against the pillow, and you stared into his blue eyes, bringing your hand over to caress his face again.  The indents beside his nose from his glasses were still dominant in his skin and you ran your thumb over the spot and down until his eyes fell closed and he let out a little groan low in his throat.

“Will you stay awake until I go back to sleep?” he asked quietly, his eyes slowly blinking open.

You nodded firmly against the pillow and leaned forward to press a kiss to the tip of his nose.

“Of course I will.”

“Thank you,” he whispered, pressing his face closer to your warm hand.

“I’m right here baby, just try to sleep.”

With another sigh his heart found a steady rhythm and he slung his hand to rest it warm against your hip, wanting to feel you as he settled down.  You stayed awake like you’d promised while he drifted back off to sleep, feeling the warm breath fan from his nose and the little twitches his mouth gave in his sleep had you ghosting the pad of your thumb over his soft pink lips until it rested over the solid white scar and stayed put while he slept.


End file.
